David Dominguez Hooper

Background and Early Career

David Dominguez Hooper is an engineer and entrepreneur educated at UC Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Before founding ELDAEON, he worked in sensor research and development at Velodyne LiDAR, gaining hands-on expertise in advanced sensing systems and signal processing.

ELDAEON and Passive Radar Technology

In 2023, Hooper founded ELDAEON, a deep-tech startup focused on developing affordable, open-source sensor systems for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) detection and aerospace defense. The company's flagship product, NEMESIS, is a passive radar system based on commodity hardware and open-source signal processing, costing approximately $500 per bistatic receiver unit. Unlike traditional active radar systems, NEMESIS operates passively, detecting objects through their interference with existing RF signals—a methodology that avoids active emissions while providing real-time tracking capability.

The NEMESIS system integrates a servo-actuated RF antenna array, software-defined radio, and Raspberry Pi compute infrastructure, making it accessible to researchers, institutions, and citizen science networks. As of March 2026, ELDAEON had begun shipping systems to Batch 1 customers, marking the transition from development to field deployment.

Distributed Passive Radar Project

Hooper leads the Distributed Passive Radar Project, a collaborative initiative under The Sol Foundation designed to evaluate, deploy, and analyze a geographically distributed network of low-cost passive radar units. The project aims to:

• Deploy sensor networks near commercial airports and critical infrastructure
• Collect scientifically rigorous data on non-cooperative aerial threats and UAP
• Establish standardized protocols for crowdsourced UAP observation with scientific credibility
• Bridge the gap between amateur observation networks and peer-reviewed research standards

This represents a paradigm shift in UAP investigation: democratizing sensor capability while maintaining scientific rigor, allowing distributed observation networks to contribute to understood phenomena characterization rather than anecdotal reporting.

Recent Public Engagement (2026)

In 2026, Hooper has become increasingly visible in UAP research communities. He appeared on Coast to Coast AM in August 2026 for an episode titled "UFOs & How To Catch Them," discussed UAP detection technologies at Deep Tech Week, and presented at major UFO conferences including Contact in the Desert (May 2026) and the UAP Summit. He has also established an internship program at UC Irvine (summer 2026) to train the next generation of UAP sensor engineers.

Significance to UAP Research

Hooper's work represents a practical, scalable approach to UAP detection that avoids the classification barriers limiting government-funded research. By making passive radar technology affordable and open-source, he enables academic institutions, private research organizations, and international partners to conduct independent UAP observations without relying on declassified government data or institutional permission. His Distributed Passive Radar Project exemplifies how scientific rigor and citizen participation can converge in the post-disclosure era, providing verifiable data that neither anecdotal witness reports nor grainy thermal video can offer.